Elizabeth Blasius

Everything Chicago Symposium The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to convening the world to explore innovative ideas and bring people together to collectively imagine and shape the future...

✨The Everything Chicago Symposium is a FREE one-day public event organized by the Chicago Architecture Biennial on Friday, October 17th at the Driehaus Museum!

I will be moderating a panel at 3:30 titled 'Common Chicago: Collective Space.' More information in the link below.

See you there! ✨

Best Former House of Royalty: Mid-century modern home of ‘Soul Queen’ Helen C. Maybell Anglin — Chatham hicago history is often hidden in plain sight in the structures that surround us. From the extraordinary terra cotta-clad buildings standing sentinel over Cottage Grove to the bungalows marching along...

I wrote about the incredible collection of modernist architecture in Chatham commissioned by Black professionals looking to make their mark on Chicago in the midcentury

Update: The Roger Brown Home and Studio is on the agenda for the October 9th Commission on Chicago Landmarks Meeting!

Chicago Architecture Biennial outtakes. Read my review! www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

once again: the correct unit of analysis for municipal budgets is not dollars but "cost of policing" days/hours

how many CoP hours would it take for this to be a funded position?

i bet it's less than the overtime budget
i bet it's less than the "settlements from police misconduct" budget

I know!

Paging labor advocacy champion @sarahmarsom.bsky.social! And calling on every planner, preservationist, non-profit preservation organization and planning agency to insist DPD take this down!

It's insulting and unethical!

In 2012, I would have been all over a 21 hour/week volunteer position at DPD in historic preservation just to get my foot in the door--even though it would have required me to maintain my full time job waiting tables and bartending, and it guaranteed nothing, and would have cost me my mental health.

Unpaid labor at a municipal planning agency is not okay--it devalues the expertise required for these positions, and drives inequity.

Chicago's Department of Planning and Development can and should do better!

Three Demolition Permits Will Clear North Center Site For SFR Permitted In August - Chicago YIMBY Four demolition permits issued by the City of Chicago on September 22 will clear space for a single-family home permitted back in August.

This is gross. All the buildings to be demolished were built ca. 1906, according to building permits. They will be replaced by a SFH. chicagoyimby.com/2025/09/thre...

I signed it and thought I’d share in case you also want to show support for the preservation of the Roger Brown Home & Studio. The letter co-written by @blaservations.bsky.social and @susannahribs.bsky.social now has almost 500 signatures. Link here: forms.gle/zEHarFNqgYCZ...

Students, alumni and faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago are speaking out about the significance of the Roger Brown Home & Studio as a part of their creative lives!

Nearly 500 people have signed this letter @susannahribs.bsky.social and I wrote together!

From Design to Destruction: Archiving the World Trade Center In her monthly column, Elizabeth Blasius visits the Archives of Michigan, the home of the Yamasaki, Inc., Architectural Firm Records, to consider what…

For my monthly column in MAS Context I visited the Archives of Michigan, home of the Yamasaki, Inc., Architectural Firm Records, to consider what remains of the World Trade Center.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

mascontext.com/observations...

Ford Is Leaving Its Longtime HQ to a Walkable New Campus By trading its historic Glass House headquarters for a new global campus designed by Snøhetta, Ford is sending a mixed message on sustainability.

Newsletter this week: Ford pulled off the impossible by restoring the derelict Michigan Central Station, a $1 billion renovation. But now Ford is demolishing its longtime HQ, the Glass House, tearing down a key Dearborn landmark. What gives? www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

You touch on something that i've observed; that large corporations will always exercise their own right to pick and choose if--and how--they engage with preservation. Ford is doing this here, Google also does it.

I grew up in the Detroit area, and my dad worked for Ford (not in this building--but in Dearborn) I did not know that the 1956 Ford HQ was the work of Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois! Its so interesting to learn more about the folks that made SOM what it is.

Text here:

Elizabeth Blasius and Susannah Ribstein: Landmark the Roger Brown Home and Studio — or lose it forever The Roger Brown Home and Studio has local, national and international significance to a broad community of artists.

Grateful to have this op-ed on the sale of the Roger Brown Home & Studio written by myself and @susannahribs.bsky.social in the Chicago Tribune.

This is precisely the type of civic engagement we learned how to do as students in historic preservation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Text below:

Preserve, Don't Demolish, The Roger Brown Home and Studio To whom it may concern, We, alumni, faculty, students, and members of the broader community of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, are writing regarding the School's sale of the Roger Brown's...

First, if this place ever meant anything to you, here is an open letter (co-written by me & @blaservations.bsky.social) that you can sign: forms.gle/63wfeDPcur46...

Artist Roger Brown's longtime home and studio for sale by School of the Art Institute Roger Brown owned the building from the early 1970s into the mid-1990s, and donated it with all its contents to the school in 1996.

SAIC's decision to sell the Roger Brown Home & Studio building at 1926 N. Halsted St. is extremely at the intersection of my work in real estate, preservation, & Chicago art history. Some thoughts & info, for those interested.🧵 www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-...

I have two degrees from SAIC--a BFA and a Masters Degree in Historic Preservation. Both programs widely celebrated the Roger Brown Home and Studio as a learning tool for students. The NRHP nomination was written by @susannahribs.bsky.social--another SAIC alumni--when she was a student.

Artist Roger Brown's longtime home and studio for sale by School of the Art Institute Roger Brown owned the building from the early 1970s into the mid-1990s, and donated it with all its contents to the school in 1996.

Crain's Chicago Business broke this story three days ago:
www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-...

1926 N Halsted Street, Chicago, IL, 60614 | MLS 12432661 Property for sale for $1,175,000. 1926 N. HALSTED is a rare opportunity to completely renovate or to demolish the existing structure to make the land vacant and ready for development (zoned RT-4; tota...

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is selling the National Register of Historic Places listed Roger Brown Home and Studio in Lincoln Park--a gift from Brown to the school in 1996--as a potential teardown.

www.bhhsmichiganrealestate.com/single-famil...

Photo taken along a wide stone plaza with a modernist building to the left, protected with large concrete blocks and tall metal security fencing.

Photo looking through a corner under a modernist building, with tall metal security fencing and concrete blocks protecting it to the left. Ahead across the street is a red sculpture and another black modernist building.

Photo looking down a sidewalk protected under an overhanging taller building. To the left is a wall of metal security fencing with concrete blocks behind it. A sign reads Entrance in red.

Just a normal day at the Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Courthouse in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Posting for no reason.

Untapped : Sometimes, Democratic Design Doesn’t “Look” Like Anything : By Zach Mortice Dwight H. Perkins designed Chicago public schools as neighborhood centers in the early 1900s. Many still serve their communities today.

My take from last year untappedjournal.com/stories/zach...

Chicago Review of Architecture reviews architecture in Chicago.

We are pleased to share that we have received a grant from the Graham Foundation for a Chicago Review of Architecture.

A complicated little corner in Charnley-Persky House in Chicago with gorgeous and extremely Sullivan woodwork taking center stage.

Close-up of a portion of the incredible window surround on the side of Purdue State Bank in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Mesmerizing staircase with Sullivan ornamentation. Originally in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, now at the Met.

Color photo of a corner of the recreated Chicago Stock Exchange trading room floor now located inside the Art Institute of Chicago. In this one photo there are layers and layers of exquisite Sullivan details, found everywhere from wall stencils to art glass panels.

September 3rd is Louis Sullivan's birthday! Celebrating with some of my favorite Sullivan details.